Friday, 9 November 2012

Grave - Endless Procession of Souls

GRAVE - Endless Procession
of Souls (CENTURY MEDIA - LP 2012)

I guess that being a cult and classic band, one
of the originators of the whole musical movement – which in this case is
Swedish death metal – must be pretty hard. Everyone watches you, some hoping
that you finally will deliver a music, which will equal your early outputs –
because everyone will always say that your first LP, sometimes the second one,
is the best. And some will keep the fingers crossed for the reasons known just
to them that you’ll fail, so they can put a crap towards you on internet forums
or whatever and moan how great the scene was 20 years ago and now the bands
only vulture on their old heritage, recording some shit, which is not worth a
damn penny. Obviously the real fans will stay with their favourite bands,
despite their mistakes and some temporary failures and also despite the
fashions, which come and go like the seasons. Some you win, some you lose, as
they say. So, it must be quite stressful life, for people like Ola Lindgren,
who keeps playing under the cult name of Grave for almost 25 years now. There
were killer releases in the beginning (“Into the Grave”, “You’ll Never See…”),
there were some mistakes (“Hating Life”)… Line up changes happened also, most important
being the departure of the early vocalist / bassist Jörgen Sandström, who in
1996 joined Entombed. Such things will always have a big impact on the fans,
who will expect their favourite idols to never fail. But once Grave came back
with “Back From the Grave” LP things had its ups and downs in my opinion. This
album, as well as “Fiendish Regression” were OK, but more mediocre. Then
happened also some much better releases, my favourite being “As Rapture Comes”,
which added a lot of fuel and fire into the Grave’s skeleton. And albums
“Dominion VIII” and “Burial Ground” were also very good and satisfying to the
fans. But I am very, very glad to see and hear that it seems like Grave have
unexpectedly really got strong now and all of a sudden putted out an album,
which I think belongs to the best ones, which Lindgren had ever recorded!!!

Fuck yeah, you read it right. Now, 21 years
after the release of fundamental “Into the Grave” we have “Endless Procession
of Souls” and I feel like this is a true Grave, stronger ever since the release
of “You’ll Never See” and definitely this newest effort belongs to my top three
of all of Grave’s releases!!!! And I don’t need to mention I guess, which other
LPs I like most hehe. I am really, really surprised that Grave managed to
compose and complete such a killer and wonderful album. Of course I kept
collecting all their vinyls, they never really failed me much (except the
“Hating Life”, which remains the only album, which I don’t have nowadays in my
collection), but even through such “Burial Ground” was really good and fun to
listen to, I didn’t feel the thrills while listening to it just as when I
listened to the early albums for the first time. Meanwhile something like that
happened once I played “Endless Procession of Souls”. It was like “what the
fuck????”, can it be really so good? Yeah it can!

Right from the very first sound I felt
completely massacred by the brilliance of this album. Really, it has everything
what good Grave LP should have, but written in some of the best ways. Each
track on “Endless Procession of Souls” is just killer, their riffs are
memorable, but heavy, brutal and massive, in some mysterious way Old Lindgren
and his comrades managed to write absolutely stunning songs, which are equally
good as those from their early efforts. No bullshit, no time for fillers, just
crushing death metal, straight ahead, punching you in the face and ripping your
guts out. And those excellent riffs – some of them are almost doomy and some
are so much influenced by Celtic Frost (“Flesh Epistle”), but all in all you
can clearly hear that this is Grave. The style of this band plus the
characteristic vocals of Ola are unique and one of a kind. I cannot even
mention, which songs are those, which I like most, as the whole album is just
superb. I mean, the same feeling I had when I was listening to the two recent
Asphyx albums – they also are just amazingly good and include some of the best
pieces, which this Dutch band has composed, and I hardly am able to pick up my
favourites, as everything sounds so damn good. I have the same feeling, when I
shred my guts with “Endless Procession of Souls”. OK, maybe “Amongst Marble and
the Dead”, “Epos” and “Disembodied Steps” would be especially gut ripping and crushing
bits. But as I said, Grave delivered a complete, perfect album.

And on top of everything I must also mention
how great the sound of “Endless Procession of Souls” is. The production, which
Lindgren did, is just amazing, very energetic, very heavy, but also very
organic and old school. It makes every riff sound like a bulldozer! And also
the artwork for the LP is just fantastic. It’s creepy, it’s full of ghouls and
other monsters… I love it. It looks just stunning on the gatefold
LP!!!!!!!!!!!! And if I mention the vinyl, then I must add that it includes a
bonus LP, with six covers tunes (Voivod, Anthrax, Celtic Frost, Alice In
Chains, St.Vitus, Asphyx). I was kinda sceptic about it, especially as some of
these covers – like Alice In Chains’ – has already appeared on the previous
LPs, but anyway it’s always great to get something extra, don’t you think? The
quality of those covers varies; some I like (Asphyx), some not really (Anthrax),
but that may be due to the fact that I’m not a fan of some of these bands. And
also I don’t like Celtic Frost’s cover, “Mesmerized”, as I’m not a fan of “Into
the Pandemonium” and those clean vocals just don’t convince me. From the other
hand to hear “Them Bones” with death metal growls sounds truly interesting and
I’m into it fully.

So, get this LP now, kneel before Grave,
because once Dismember is gone, Grave are the true masters of the Swedish death
metal!!!!!!!!! And with such amazing LPs as “Endless Procession of Souls”
there’s no competition for them. Together with Asphyx and Bolt Thrower they are
the best classic death metal band in Europe, no doubt! 666!

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